10 steps to creating high-scoring proposals
A modern perspective on proposal development and what really matters
By Bob Lohfeld
Edited by Beth Wingate
10 steps to creating high-scoring proposals
A modern perspective on proposal development and what really matters
By Bob Lohfeld
Edited by Beth Wingate
Copyright 2017 Lohfeld Consulting Group, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Printed in United States of America
ISBN: 978-0-9887554-9-9
Published by Lohfeld Consulting Group, Inc.
940 South River Landing Road
Edgewater, Maryland 21037
For more information, contact BWingate@LohfeldConsulting.com
Production, Design, and Copyediting: Alexandra Wingate and Beth Wingate
While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher, authors, and editor assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. All hyperlinks were accurate as of the original date of publication.
|Dedication
We dedicate this book to our outstanding team of capture and proposal consultants who spend their days (and sometimes nights and weekends!) helping our customers to create high-scoring proposals and to our leadership team without whom none of this could happen.
We extend our continuing thanks to our colleagues for your positive reviews of our books and continuing encouragement in sharing our insights and tips with our capture and proposal community.
|About the author & editor
|Author
Bob Lohfeld, Chairman of the Board & Founder, APMP Fellow
Bob Lohfeld has more than 30 years experience winning contracts in the government market and is recognized consistently for his leadership in business development, capture management, and winning proposals development.
In 2003, he founded Lohfeld Consulting Group to provide capture and proposal services to companies doing business with government organizations worldwide. Today, Lohfeld Consulting Group is one of the leading companies in this market having helped over 350 companies write winning proposals and win billions in new contracts.
Bob teaches Capture Management, and he writes the Capture Management column in Washington Technology . In 2012, he was inducted as a Fellow in the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP).
Prior to forming Lohfeld Consulting Group, Bob served as Division President at Lockheed Martin, Vice President of Lockheed Martin Information Technology, Senior Vice President at OAO Corp., Systems Engineering Manager at Computer Sciences Corp. (CSC), and Program Manager at Fairchild Industries. He also taught at the graduate level at George Washington University School of Engineering Administration.
Bob has served on the Board of Directors for APMP and its National Capital Area Chapter (APMP-NCA) and as Chairman of the American Council on Technology Industry Advisory Council (ACT/IAC), Vice Chairman of the Technology Council of Maryland (TCM), and Board Member of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA), Government Electronics and Information Association (GEIA), and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF Capital Region). He is a three-time winner of Federal Computer Weeks Federal 100.
|Editor
Beth Wingate, President, APMP Fellow
Beth Wingate has more than 25 years proposal development, management, training, and communications/social media experience. She helps clients develop proposals, improve their proposal operations, and train their teams in proposal management best practices. Beth has spent her career finding ways to use technology to enhance teams business processes and customer deliverables. She specializes in managing responses to large federal government procurements as well as task order proposals.
Prior to joining Lohfeld Consulting, she served as proposal center director for Lockheed Martin and before that for 12 years as proposal center director for Management Systems Designers, Inc. (MSD) (acquired by Lockheed Martin).
Beth was inducted as an APMP Fellow in 2010. She is APMPs 2014 Past CEO, 2013 CEO, 2012 COO, 20102011 Director of Education, and 2008 and 2009 President of the APMP-NCA Chapter. She served as the Chapters Executive Summary Newsletter Chairperson, publisher, and editor from 2005 to 2007.
In 2008, Beth received the Steven S. Myers Award for APMP Chapter Chair of the Year. She regularly presents at APMP International and Regional conferences and writes for APMP publications. She has been an active APMP member since 1996.
Contents
Introduction
Introduction
Beth Wingate, President
Bob Lohfeld developed the 10 steps to creating high-scoring proposals presentation that he and I expanded into this book to share our modern perspective on proposal management and what matters within the proposal process with our customers.
Were using these 10 steps to help our customers concentrate on whats really important in proposal development and on best practices that may have fallen to the wayside because of different priorities within their organizations.
In this book, Bob will walk you through the source selection decision-making process and what the government evaluators and the final decision maker look for as they review your proposals.
Hell cover our strength-based solutioning process and the difference between features and benefitsand how to really make your proposal stand out.
Finally, Bob will walk you through 10 actions your organization can take that will positively affect your proposal outputs.
The concepts and actions Bob presents have been transformational for quite a few organizations. We hope the same will be true for yours.
Bob Lohfeld, Chairman of the Board
When companies engage us to develop their proposal process, to manage their proposal activities, and to write proposals for them, they expect us to do more than just come in and create a proposal thats finished on time and is delivered to the customer. (We work on about 400 proposals each year.)
What we promise themand what they expect from usis that well come in and help them create a high-scoring proposal, and they will continue to use us if they win. If we merely help them to submit compliant proposals and they dont win, then those companies will soon become disenchanted with spending money on an outside proposal team to come in and help support them.
Because we must drive proposals to be high scoring, we put together this presentationand now this book. Weve been educating our customers about our modern approach to proposals, and they come back to our consulting practice and say, We want you to give us somebody who understands and embraces this approach and will lead us in a way to create high-scoring proposals.
What I want to do now is share with you what I tell the clients when I have an opportunity to talk with them.
Weve divided this book into two parts. Part 1 is a bit of a tutorial about how the Federal Government evaluates proposalswhat happens to your proposal when it leaves your office. As I tell our clients, dont zone out while I share this tutorial piece because I guarantee you will learn things in it that you didnt know before.
